airasia Super App, a travel and lifestyle mobile app that lets you book flights, hotels, and travel packages as well as shop for branded products, announced recently that it has entered into a five-year partnership agreement with Google Cloud.
According to a statement posted on Air Asia’s website, “the strategic collaboration with Google Cloud will advance airasia Super App’s vision of a co-innovation ecosystem that all businesses and developers can partake in to serve the daily needs of people in the region.”
Strategic partnership with Google Cloud explained
As part of the partnership agreement, the two organizations will combine their core competencies in nurturing talent and in co-creating software tools for open innovation. Ultimately, the goal is to be able to deliver data-driven intelligence on behalf of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) on the platform, and ensure accessibility for diverse users in cities and rural areas in Southeast Asia.
A Cloud Centre of Excellence (CCoE) comprised of AirAsia Allstars and Google Cloud technologists will be established in order to promote an agile culture and co-innovation talent engine.
The CCoE’s mission is to boost the rate of product development, make the teams more open to change, and improve employees’ skills. Google Cloud’s site reliability engineering (SRE) and MLOps best practices will also be observed to ensure that both current employees and graduates of the AirAsia Academy would have the technological chops to keep up with the needs of the rapidly expanding company.
The CCoE will also act as an extension of the Google Cloud product development team and will take the lead in fostering co-innovation activities to help shape technology developments in the region.
To facilitate a user’s access via any device at any time, the CCoE will help enhance the airasia Super App by using Google Cloud’s cutting-edge microservices, serverless, and networking technologies to keep it safe, secure, stable, and lightweight while new features and services are being introduced on a regular basis.
This way, more people will be able to use the platform simultaneously, even those living in remote places with spotty internet and those using older smartphones.
Data scientists at the CCoE will also integrate and analyze data sets in real-time to learn about customer sentiment and new trends. To further SME development, they will also be using Google Cloud’s cutting-edge analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence tools to decode information like consumption patterns for food delivery services, ride-sharing apps, and similar other services.
With these data on hand, the platform will be in a better position to provide hyper-targeted suggestions on behalf of MSMEs, thereby increasing the latter’s revenue.
Finally, the CCoE will also employ Google Cloud’s open-source concepts and infrastructure to generate a set of software development kits (SDKs) that partners and developers may use to quickly and affordably build new features and services for users of the app.
Biometric identity systems, chatbots, electronic wallets, and online travel booking systems will all be able to make use of reusable software components. Google will also leverage the airasia Super App’s regional reach to grow its developer base in South East Asia.
“To benefit everyone across Southeast Asia’s diverse communities, the airasia super app must be simple and easy-to-use while underpinned by inclusive design, interoperability, and personalization,” explains Amanda Woo, CEO of airasia Super App. “It’s therefore crucial that we leverage Google’s rich experience in building global platforms and ecosystems that’ll engage more talents, entrepreneurs, and partners who can provide even more tailor-made solutions that fit users’ lives.”
For his part, Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, said, “In addition to boosting economic activity, super-apps are aiding the success of individual entrepreneurs. The airasia Super App is a motivational case study of a company that is innovating by using cloud-first technology to expand its customer base and improve its level of service. We are excited to continue our collaboration with Air Asia as they build a talent pool and an open innovation ecosystem to serve the region’s varied digital lifestyle requirements.”
AirAsia Super App, a key component of Capital A’s digital strategy
AirAsia Super App is a key component of Capital A’s digital strategy, serving as a travel platform in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines. An integrated loyalty program and mobile wallet serve as the backbone of the platform, which also facilitates travel and hotel reservations, online shopping, food and package delivery, ride-hailing, financial and health services, on-demand education, and more.
“When I decided five years ago to take our digital journey to the next level, I set out to find a collaborator who could help us reach the same pinnacle that Airbus and General Electric had brought us to as they aided our expansion from a two-plane business to the fourth largest airline in Asia,” said Tony Fernandes, CEO of Capital A.
“I crisscrossed the United States in search of this potential business associate, eventually connecting with Google Cloud’s Diane Greene. Our journey to revolutionize the digital platform industry, just like we did with the aviation industry, has begun with Thomas and his team. Although we were a bit late to the game, with the Super App at the hub of our e-commerce, logistics, and financial ecosystem, we’re committed to providing the 700 million people in ASEAN with equity, convenience, and fair pricing,” he added.
To date, the platform has already become the go-to lifestyle app for 51 million users, and this is before the debut of any services in any of the individual markets that make up the ASEAN.
A Credit Suisse report stated that since its establishment in 2020, the airasia Super App has already grown to become one of three “unicorns” with Malaysian headquarters.
“Customers and partners such as restaurants, flights, hotels, and drivers will all benefit from Google’s contributions to our ecosystem, which will be about more than just transactions. I can’t wait to show you how AirAsia and the rest of Capital A’s holdings plan to make the ASEAN region more accessible and prosperous,” Fernandes beams. “Our approach is revolutionary, rather than evolutionary. With Google at the wheel, I just want to relax and have fun.”
According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), digital platform business models will be responsible for producing 70% of the world’s additional economic value in the next decade.